LOL, should I change my profile to "certain unnamed person"?
I have a video of our i3 Prusa constructed a few weeks back..
At the time the video was made we had just finished construction, and mechanical squaring up. All the diagonal measurements are within .5mm tolerance. Pretty much everything is parallel etc. Wires have been extended (a little excessively) Most of is slides and rolls freely where it should with little or no play where play is undesirable. The bed seems to be binding a little, Although we did use really rusty lineal bearings there, to see how long they would last... Not sure if its the bearings or if I mounted a bearing half a mm out of square. Possibly a bit of both..
Since then we have tested 2x ramps boards. One I made, mostly using bought parts that didn't fit well, and one pre fab one. Both work as they should. Buying them on ebay ready made is the cheaper option, Be sure to get one with 35v SMD capacitors. Some only come with 16v cap,s which would be bad if you ever wanted to improve efeciency or driver heat problems by running the steppers of the 30v they are made to run at, as opposed to the 12v most repraps run... I have salvaged almost everything but the resistors for a 3rd one that I will do with all SMD parts of the right size... Just cant seem to get the right sizes through Jaycar, they dont even stock SMD resistors :| Need to find my good magnifying glass to go over scrap SMD boards and pick of the resistors I need... Not really looking forward to that... Being a disabled pensioner, I oftern have more time than cash, so salvaging is the best option for me...
Last week we (Donkey, I'm useless with code) got a Raspberry pi running ponterface and got all the hot bits to get hot, and the moving bits to move, powered from an ATX I modded. Everything did mostly what it should, although a few axisis where inverted so some stuff went backwards. I fixed 2 axis by inverting the stepper connections. Donkey has since learned how to do it in the code too. So now its just down to calibrating steps per defined distance and getting the thermistors calibrated a bit better, and actually having hot bits PWM at the right temps....
I have a few other videos of the mostly metal rep-strap we are doing from mostly recycled parts, and a few videos on testing the various electronic components. All of which can be found in the 3d printer playlist on my channel. Along with how I made my own set square and cordless hand lathe from scrap to save on cost...
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhJ5fhDqOBDs_d8bw5_UeaVZ9nbz51jXU&feature=edit_ok
I'm planning to add some videos on salvaging parts from old printers etc as well as keeping the playlist up dated with any progress in this project. As donkey mentioned I am doing most of the construction and soldering etc, while Donkey does all the advanced code/computer stuff.
Ian if you have the skills to build one, you'd be nuts to pay the price they are charging for the commercial ones. My salvaged parts rep strap is going to come in around the $200 mark. Most of that on steppers I could probably substitute (eying off some dc brushed motors with encoders). It is a big project though, normally I'd recommend three people do it. Coder, Programmer, and Mechanic. I'm a bit lucky in that I have both electronic skills and mechanical/structural skills, and am not to shabby with computers. Although If I had to build it and code it I'd be stuffed, good thing Donkey is handing most of the coding... Pre fab stuff like the RAMPS boards can help a lot. I'm not rapt with the electronic design (like how you cant get the heat-sinks on the correct side of the stepper driver boards, because someone failed to RTFM), but it saves a ton of work in making a custom arduino shield. Then once it works we have to learn how to use CAD programs, which is a whole other ball game again... The commercial printers do offer a wide range of materials you can print with. Although the reprap community is catching up. if a little slowly. Need more chemists involved... I dont think any of the commercial ones will be as good as a second or third model from a skilled tinkerer... If you go with a commercial model, you seem to get stuck buying filament etc from that company. Which is a deal breaker for me. Building from scratch is a huge undertaking though. If I had of known how many hours I would be spending looking for information scattered will nilly all over the internet, I'm not sure I would have started... Something we both hope to improve on through this project. By providing guides that are actually honest and useful.. A lot of the guides just say but these exact parts and your fine.. But we cant get those parts in Australia... Also I think it would be good for someone to show various options in solving some of the more common issues...
There are a few home made filament extruders out there too. I'm really hoping to be able to collect rubbish, and recycle the plastic for printing, or at least be able to recycle bad prints. Looking like there will be issues with plasticizers cooking off. So plasticizer will need to be added, which is rather toxic, and adds extra complexity...
There will also be a powder base with inkjet applied binder/solvent printer soon. I am also looking into making co2 laser or modding laser diode's to make a laser sintering printer. As I really want to print metal.... Co2 laser is looking like the best option, although I still have a lot of reading to do on wavelengths vs material etc... infra red does seem to be capable of melting most stuff though, if the intensity is available.
If I was starting this whole project over, I'd be skipping the filament printers altogether, and going straight to powder types. Much more versatile. Also a lot less common, so more work to be had if you had one and wanted it to make an earn.
If anyone has any ideas how I can make a nozzle with a less than 100 micron hole in it I'm all ears too. One of my long term goals with this is printing graphene batterys etc
Need sub 1 micron to make it worthwhile. Although sub 100 micron is a good start and would be useful with fine filament work.
